Tom Brady Burns Team That Passed On Him in 2020: 'Not That Many Smart People As You Think'

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Hell hath no fury as Tom Brady scorned.

The 43-year-old quarterback did not mince words in a recent interview when discussing the mysterious team that declined to sign him when he entered free agency last year.

"I think what you realize is that there's not as many smart people as you think," Brady said of the unidentified team during a SiriusXM Town Hall event with sportscaster Jim Gray that aired Wednesday night. "It's just the reality."

In March 2020, Brady left the New England Patriots, his home for the first two decades of his NFL career. During that time, the father-of-three tested the waters of free agency and met with other teams before eventually joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a month later.

"It would be a no-brainer if you said, 'Hey, you've got a chance to get Wayne Gretzky on your team,' or 'You get a chance to have Michael Jordan on your team,'" Brady told Gray. "'Ahh, we don't need him. No thanks, we're good.' In my mind, I'm kind of thinking, okay, let me go show those teams what they're missing."

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"At the same time, let me go prove to the team that did bet on me, and the team that really showed that they really wanted me and committed to me, that I'm not going to let them down," he added.

After deciding on Tampa Bay, Brady led the team to a Super Bowl win just 10 months later in February for his seventh title. While things worked out in the end, Brady never forgot about the team that passed him up in free agency.

"One of the teams, and they weren't interested at the very end," Brady discussed in an episode of HBO's The Shop last month. "I was thinking, 'You're sticking with that motherf-----?' "

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Since then, NFL fans have wondered which team Brady was referring to in his comments.

Around the time Brady entered free agency, there were rumors that the final two teams in the running to be his new home were the Bucs and Los Angeles Chargers. The latter let go of longtime quarterback, Philip Rivers, and instead went with rookie quarterback Justin Herbert.

Some online are speculating Brady may have been speaking about Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once Brady's back-up in New England but went on to become the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

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The 49ers have confirmed they were interested in Brady during his free agency.

"When you're talking about one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time with Tom Brady, of course, you're going to have some internal discussion," General Manager John Lynch previously said, according to USA Today. "And then you hear rumors that hey, he'd like to come home, that kind of thing."

While speaking with SiriusXM, Brady declined to name the team, saying, "there's private things for me that are going to remain motivational for me — they know who they are."